When I started doing research about getting rid of geese, I had no clue that geese were actually a problem for some people. Well, that’s not entirely true. I knew that when people started slipping and falling on goose droppings at our city’s water front we had a problem with geese. But how to get rid of geese? And is it easy? “The thing that you have to remember” Tom Starling of Bird-X, one of the most trusted names in the pest control industry, “is that birds get used to anything that doesn’t change very frequently. Geese have been known to nest on firing ranges for the Navy. People use stuff like noise cannons and expect that to scare them off. So, that’s just a general principle to keep in mind.” We’ve kept that in mind and have provided some home remedy solutions for a goose problem that you may want to try individually, but are best used together as an integrative approach to getting rid of geese.
The key to effective goose control is to repel the geese before the local population gets too large, or to make your property as unattractive to geese as possible. The goose control strategies outlined and described below are typical non-lethal methods for getting rid of geese proffered by wildlife management experts.
Canadian Geese Control & Deterrents
If you want to get rid of geese, you have to stop feeding the local population. This is true in parks, public places, and sometimes private property. Whether it’s private or public land, signs may need to be constructed alerting people to the dangers of feeding wildlife. Not only is human food not good for a goose’s diet, but those geese who become used to handouts and become domesticated will actually attract more wild or migrating geese to the same area—much the same way duck decoys work for hunters.
Speaking of decoys: setting up a family of swan decoys might help get rid of geese still looking for nesting grounds. Like geese, Mute Swans will defend their young quite aggressively, and this is a danger most incoming geese will try to avoid. There’s no reason why you should have to keep swan decoys in your lawn, ponds, or near your lakeshore property all of the time. They will eventually become an eye sore. Simply put these out if and when you know the migratory season for geese has begun. Here’s a hint: there’ll be honking in the clouds.
Making your pond or water front property less attractive with tall grasses will help get rid of geese. It has been suggested that allowing the tall grasses around a pond or lake to grow at least 18 inches high in a band roughly ten feet wide around a shorelines will help make your property less attractive to geese. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that geese like to be kept abreast of the activities of nearby animals, particularly predators. They will be less likely to make your property into a nesting ground if they don’t have an adequate visual field to ensure their safety.
Restricting easy access to the water will ensure that geese stay away from your beaches and ponds. There are several ways to accomplish this. One way is to build a dock that lines the water’s edge, of sufficient height that geese cannot easily climb up onto it. Perhaps an easier method is to set up bird netting or a bird fence near the water’s edge to prevent easy access to and from the water. If you’ve ever chased geese, you’ll know their first instinct is to go for water. If they don’t feel they can do that very easily, they will find another area to build their nest.
Goose Chase, distributed by Bird-X, is a turf and lawn treatment specifically designed to get rid of geese. The spray itself contains an ingredient called Methyl anthanilate, and according to Tom Starling of Bird-X, it’s a “food-grade substance that’s been used as flavoring in foods for years and is biodegradable.” He also assures me that any Methyl anthanilate “would be well broken down by the time it got through the lawn to any sort of water source, but even if it did there’s no way it is going to hurt you.” Good things to hear from a man who’s company has be recognized as the people to go to for over 40 years.Hunting Canadian Geese
This is the goose control method not preferred by most wildlife management officials.
Perhaps one of the most efficient ways to get rid of geese is to hunt them. So long as there is sufficient evidence that the local goose population is higher than normal, county, city, and state officials should consider posting additional goose hunting seasons to remedy the problem. This is the case with Pennsylvania, where special goose hunting seasons have been set during those times when the migratory population of Canadian geese is elsewhere for the season. Surely, this isn’t the most humane solution to a goose problem, but it is the tastiest.
If problems are being caused by the migratory geese population, then it might be wise to consult your local conservation officer and talk to them about procuring a special permit to kill geese on your property. Acquiring these sorts of permits are difficult if you cannot prove that the damage being done to your property is causing you sufficient distress to warrant such a measure.
